LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe tapped two men with engineering backgrounds Friday to fill vacancies on the Arkansas Highway Commission, a constitutionally independent agency and among the most coveted of gubernatorial appointments.
Beebe selected Tom Schueck of Little Rock to replace Carl Rosenbaum, also of Little Rock, whose 10-year term had expired. Rosenbaum was appointed by former Gov. Mike Huckabee. Schueck, 69, is chairman and chief executive officer of Lexicon Inc., a steel producer.
John Burkhalter, also of Little Rock, replaces a Beebe appointee, Cliff Hoofman of North Little Rock, who resigned to accept an appointment to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Burkhalter will serve the remaining six years of Hoofman’s term. Burkhalter is president of Burkhalter Technologies.
Three of the five commissioners now are Beebe appointees. The third is Dick Trammel of Rogers. R. Madison Murphy of El Dorado, the commission chairman, and John Ed Regenold of Armorel are Huckabee appointees. Commission members are not paid.
“Obviously, I have trust and confidence in both of them or they wouldn’t have been appointed to what most people consider the most sought-after gubernatorial commission appointment in all of state government,” Beebe said at a news conference Friday morning at the state Capitol to announce the appointments. “Both of them have been extremely positive, contributing members of this community and state.”
Beebe said both appointees share his philosophy on road funding, in which most of the money dedicated to highways should go where most of the traffic is concentrated, with some money set aside for“economic development opportunities in parts of the state that wouldn’t necessarily be justified just by the cars.”
“I did get commitments out of them that their philosophy matches mine,” the governor said. “I do believe I know them well enough to know they have traits that I trust. But they’ll make their own judgments.”
“I’m a believer that the money should follow the cars,” Schueck said. “I’m also a believer in you should pay. We’ll do the best we can. We’re team players.”
Burkhalter declined to expand on the governor’s comments. “I’m a reader,” he said. “I have a lot to learn. I don’t have any comment at this point.”
Dan Flowers, director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said he believes the agency is focusing its money the way the governor described now.
“What Gov. Beebe said was that the bulk of the money, a large portion of the money, should address some traffic issues,” Flowers said after the news conference. “The remainder of the state has to be served for the purposes of mobility and economic development. The Highway Commission has in place the primary highway network, which was developed back in 2004, and also the four-lane grid system that I think is a good framework for accomplishing just what he was talking about.”
The primary highway network totals nearly 8,500 miles, or about half of the state’s highway system, but carries 92 percent of the traffic.
Both Schueck, 69, and Burkhalter, 54, minced no words Friday on how much they wanted the appointments.
“This is a position I have sought and wanted and, through you, I was able to obtain,” Schueck told the governor before dozens of state highway officials, family and friends. “I believe ... I can live up to the standards under which you operate.”
Schueck is leaving an appointment on the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Commission. He also served 12 years on the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission. Schueck was recently reappointed to a five-year term on the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, a mayoral appointment he will continue.
Burkhalter said he was “most humbled, most grateful and honored” by the appointment. “It’s something I have envisioned for a long time.”
Burkhalter received an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Arkansas. For two summers, he worked in an engineer-training program at the Highway Department, which he now will oversee as a commission member. The experience included work on the Interstate 440 project, he recalled. Burkhalter said he sees the commission service as an opportunity to repay that debt.
Both men, their families or companies contributed heavily to the governor’s 2010 re-election effort. Burkhalter, his wife and five companies to which he is tied contributed a total of $18,000 to Beebe’s primary and general re-election campaigns, according to a review of campaign contribution and expenditure reports. Schueck, his wife and son contributed at least $10,000.
Beebe, a Democrat, raised a little more than $5 million for his general election campaign in which he bested Republican Jim Keet.
Beebe and the commission have differed over the best way to use state vehicles at the department.
“I’m confident [highway officials] can find further opportunities for review at the Highway Department,” Beebe said.
The governor said he has expressed to Burkhalter and Schueck his thoughts on that. He said he received no commitments because they haven’t learned all the facts about the use of state vehicles at the agency, but he said he thinks they agree with his position.
“What I said was if somebody’s got to have a car at 1 a.m. or 10 a.m. to go somewhere to do something, that’s a good justification in them having a car if they are subject to that on a somewhat routine [basis],” Beebe said. “It doesn’t have to be every week or every night. But it has to be a regular part of the job. If they go out somewhere in the state from their office, they can use a pool car.”
Beebe has requested that state administrators and others who don’t need a vehicle as part of their regular state business obtain permission from the Department of Finance and Administration before using a state vehicle to commute between home and work.
But the Highway Department hasn’t done that and maintained last month that no changes were necessary in their use of state vehicles. Commission members have said they operate the agency efficiently.
The department has 2,385 vehicles, the most in state government, including 674 that are taken home by commuting employees. Of those, 94 are Arkansas Highway Police officers. There are 135 central office administrators and staff members who commute in state vehicles. Highway officials have said this is necessary because they are “on call 24-7.”
Department spokesman Randy Ort said Friday that the agency has determined that six central office workers didn’t need to commute in state vehicles. He said those employees have turned in the vehicles they used. They included three engineers, an electronics technician, a surveyor, and the assistant head of the Materials Division.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/15/2011